Traditions in Chad harm, kill underfed children

ADVANCE FOR SATURDAY DEC 22, 2012 In this Oct. 31, 2012 photo, Harmata Mahamat reacts as she sits with her daughter Halime, 3 months, at a local nutrition clinic where Halime was being treated for malnutrition, in Nokou in the Mao region of Chad. Halime died several days later. In this Sahel nation, childhood malnutrition and related mortality persist at alarming rates, despite the fact that most affected families live within a day's journey of internationally-funded nutrition clinics. One reason is that families, bound by local custom, choose instead to seek traditional treatments, treatments which can lead to the very infections that kill their undernourished children.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Chad. In this Sahel nation, childhood malnutrition and related mortality persist at alarming rates, despite the fact that most affected families live within a day's journey of internationally-funded nutrition clinics. One reason is that families, bound by local custom, choose instead to seek traditional treatments, treatments which can lead to the very infections that kill their undernourished children.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
— AP

ADVANCE FOR SATURDAY DEC 22, 2012 In this Oct. 31, 2012 photo, Harmata Mahamat reacts as she sits with her daughter Halime, 3 months, at a local nutrition clinic where Halime was being treated for malnutrition, in Nokou in the Mao region of Chad. Halime died several days later. In this Sahel nation, childhood malnutrition and related mortality persist at alarming rates, despite the fact that most affected families live within a day's journey of internationally-funded nutrition clinics. One reason is that families, bound by local custom, choose instead to seek traditional treatments, treatments which can lead to the very infections that kill their undernourished children.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Chad. In this Sahel nation, childhood malnutrition and related mortality persist at alarming rates, despite the fact that most affected families live within a day's journey of internationally-funded nutrition clinics. One reason is that families, bound by local custom, choose instead to seek traditional treatments, treatments which can lead to the very infections that kill their undernourished children.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
/ AP

The mother rode a red horse, carrying her baby's hot body in her lap. She could feel the fever consuming him even through her clothes.

The remedy the healer prescribes for malnourished children is the removal of the uvula, the tiny ball of flesh that hangs from the back of the throat, which he says "gets in the way of the food." For fever, he prescribes the removal of the child's teeth.

In baby Abdallah's case he prescribed both. He grabbed the baby by one arm, placed him on the mat and pinned him down. As the child began to shriek, he dug the unwashed screwdriver into the baby's pink gums, until four tiny teeth popped out.

The healer wiped down the holes in the child's mouth with a corner of a ratty blanket, stained with the blood of the other children he'd treated that day. Then he handed the petrified, whimpering toddler to his stone-faced mother.

Tooth extraction and the removal of the uvula is common in this part of Chad. Elsewhere, the treatment for diarrhea is burning the child's anus with a rod heated over a fire. Other treatments include draining the "bad blood," a procedure recommended when children's bodies swell, a sign of severe malnutrition.

Similar practices prevailed in Europe and America as late as the 18th century. The advances in world medicine since have made their way to Chad in the form of internationally-run clinics, but they continue to be seen as foreign. More than half of Chad's people still use traditional healers, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2010, whose remedies can be effective for some ailments.

Malnutrition is not one of them. Already malnourished children who have their uvula cut can't eat for at least a week, says health official Blague. When the child does eat, the open wound often gets infected. This worsens the malnutrition.

Because the infection can last several weeks, families believe their baby has simply contracted a different ailment. Chad's government has never addressed these harmful practices. The issue remains extremely sensitive, in part because the healers claim their gift came from Allah and in part because many local officials were submitted to such practices themselves when they were children, aid workers say.

Hassane says in 30 years of practice, he's never fielded any complaints from parents whose children became sicker.

"If a child has fever or diarrhea, once he opens his mouth, I can instantly tell. If I put my finger on his gum and feel it, I can tell if it's due to his bad teeth. Once we take out this bad tooth, the diarrhea stops," Hassane says. "And if the child gets sick again, it's because he had some other illnesses in his system."

Moussa Mahamat Ali, the chief of the healers in the town of Mao, the regional capital, claims that all the children who have come to him have been cured of malnutrition.

"If the child is sick ... he has yellow hair, he doesn't eat, he's skinny, it's because of the bad teeth," says the 75-year-old Ali. "This is a treatment for malnutrition. No one has ever told me that this is bad."